A Disparate Experiment

'Aria -Special Edition' -
reviewed byHOWARD SMITH

'Aria', an opera pastiche by Scottish film director/producer Don Boyd dated 1987, was re-produced for DVD (2002) and now enjoys a further promotion -- revealing itself as neither fish nor fowl and polarising critical opinion.

On one hand we read the following: 'It is apparent that Hollywood film directors are the shallowest, least creative tribe on the planet, who equate art with nakedness and have no imagination at all.' While another commentator writes: 'Aria is ninety minutes of pure wonderment -- I'm not certain what demographic this project was aimed at, but I definitely fall into it.'

While the Aria idea sounds fine, what Second Sight Films are landed with has no unifying thread and seems somewhat like a variable tapestry cobbled together as an operatic potpourri.

The concept was to have ten noted film directors tackle an operatic scene of their own choosing for cinema audiences...